Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular pathogens that cause a spectrum of diseases including trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, as well as a variety of sexually transmitted diseases such as lymphogranuloma venereum, urethritis, cervicitis, endometritis, and salpingitis (Thylefors et al. (1995) Bull W H O 73:115–121). For example, Chlamydia trachomatis is considered the world's most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen (Schachter and Grayston (1998) Presented at the Ninth international symposium on human chlamydial infection, Napa, Calif.; World Health Organization, 1996, Global prevalence and incidence of selected curable sexually transmitted diseases: overview and estimates). Currently an estimated 400 million people have active infectious trachoma, while 90 million have a sexually transmitted disease caused by C. trachomatis (World Health Organization, 1996). Chlamydia pneumoniae usually infects the lungs and causes no more than a mild cold; however, it can travel to the blood vessels and thrive in clots, causing heart disease. Diseases caused by Chlamydia represent significant health problems worldwide.
Growth of Chlamydia generally depends on the acquisition of host ATP and other high-energy metabolites from the host (Moulder et al. (1991) Microbiol. Rev. 55:143–90). Chlamydiae have the enzymatic machinery for the Embden-Meyerhoff pathway (EMP), the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle (Kalman et al. (1999) Nat. Genet. 21:385–9; Stephens et al. (1998) Science 282:754–9). The TCA in chlamydia is incomplete in that the host lacks three enzymes: citrate synthase, aconitase, and isocitrate dehydrogenase (Kalman et al., ibid.; Stephens et al., ibid.). This observation suggests that the glutamate and α-ketoglutarate are obtained from the host cell since these cannot be synthesized by the bacterium. It has been shown that chlamydiae utilize glucose as the major source of carbon, but that dicarboxylates also serve to support chlamydial viability and growth (Iliffe-Lee et al. (2000) Mol. Microbiol. 38:20–30).
Treatment for Chlamydia infection typically involves administration of an antimicrobial drug such as azithromycin, doxycycline, ofloxacin, erythromycin, or amoxicillin (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recommendations for the prevention and management of Chlamydia trachomatis infections. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1993; 42 (RR-12): 1–102). These conventional treatments are problematic for several reasons, including patient non-compliance with multi-day, multi-dose regimens and side effects such as gastrointestinal problems. Furthermore, treatment of Chlamydia with existing antimicrobial drugs may lead to development of drug resistant bacterial strains, particularly where the patient is concurrently infected with other common bacterial infections.
In addition, chlamydial infections often have no overt symptoms, so irreversible damage can be done before the patient is aware of the infection. Therefore, prevention of the infection is considered the best way to protect from the damage caused by Chlamydia. Therefore, the development and production of effective chlamydial vaccines, more effective treatments once infection is established, and sensitive and specific diagnostic assays are important public health priorities.
Chlamydia have a unique developmental growth cycle with morphologically distinct infectious and reproductive forms, elementary bodies (EB) and reticulate bodies (RB), respectively. The outer membrane proteins of EB are highly cross-linked with disulfide bonds. The chlamydial outer membrane complex (COMC), which includes the major outer membrane protein (MOMP), is a major component of the chlamydial outer membrane. The COMC is made up of a number of cysteine-rich proteins (Everett et al. (1995) J. Bacteriol. 177:877–882; Newhall et al. (1986) Infect. Immun. 55:162–168; Sardinia et al. (1988) J. Gen. Microbiol. 134:997–1004), as determined by the insolubility of proteins in the weak anionic detergent N-lauryl sarcosinate (Sarkosyl). Insolublity of proteins in Sarkosyl is a characteristic of integral outer membrane proteins of gram-negative bacteria (Filip et al. (1973) J. Bacteriol. 115:717–722). The COMC is present on the outer membrane proteins of EB, but not of RB. In contrast, MOMP is present throughout the developmental cycle in both EB and RB and is thought to have a structural role due to its predominance and extensive disulfide crosslinking in the EB membrane. Another function of MOMP is as a porin which allows for non-specific diffusion of small molecules into Chlamydia (Bavoil et al. (1984) Infect. Immun. 44:479–485, Wyllie et al. (1998) Infect. Immun. 66:5202–5207).
As with many pathogens, the development of a vaccine to Chlamydia has proven difficult. Much of the focus for a vaccine candidate has been on the chlamydial major outer membrane protein (MOMP) (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,770,714 and 5,821,055; and PCT publication nos. WO 98/10789; WO 99/10005); WO97/41889 (describing fusion proteins with MOMP polypeptides); WO98/02546 (describing DNA immunization based on MOMP-encoding sequences); WO 94/06827 (describing synthetic peptide vaccines based on MOMP sequences); WO 96/31236). MOMP has been estimated to make up over 60% of the total outer membrane of Chlamydia and is an exposed surface antigen (Caldwell et al. (1981) Infect. Immun. 31:1161–1176) with different sequence regions conferring serotype, serogroup and species reactivities (Stephens et al. (1988) J. Exp. Med. 167:817–831). The protein consists of five conserved segments and four variable segments with the variable segments corresponding to surface exposed regions and conferring serologic specificity (Stephens et al. (1988) J. Exp. Med. 167:817–831). It has been suggested that these variable segments provide Chlamydia with antigenic variation, which in turn is important in evading the host immune response (Stephens, 1989 “Antigenic variation of Chlamydia trachomatis,” p. 51–62. In J. W. Moulder (ed.), Intracellular Parasitism. CRC Press, Boca Raton.). A potential problem in making a vaccine to an antigenically variant region is that a vaccine to one region of MOMP may only confer protection to that serovar. Also, making a subunit vaccine to an antigenic variable region may prove difficult since conformational antigenic determinants may be essential to elicit effective immunization (Fan et al. (1997) J. Infect. Dis. 176:713–721). Although the use of MOMP as a vaccine still seems promising, these potential problems strongly suggest that other vaccine targets should be explored.
Other proposed Chlamydia vaccine targets have been described and include, for example, glycolipid exoantigen (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,840,297; 5,716,793 and 5,656,271). Other Chlamydia vaccines have used other proteins (see, e.g, PCT publication no. WO 98/58953, describing a surface protein of C. pneumoniae) or a cocktail of proteins (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,725,863; and 5,242,686) or have used live or attenuated whole bacteria (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,972,350; 4,267,170; and 4,271,146). The sequencing of the genome of C. trachomatis has provided a tool to identify candidate vaccine targets (Stephens et al. (1998) Science 282:754–759) and examination of antibodies present in serum of infected individuals (Sanchez-Campillo et al. (1999) Electrophoresis 20:2269–79) have provided tools for the identification of additional vaccine targets.
There is a need in the field for the development of chemotherapeutics and vaccines that provide protection against Chlamydia and Chlamydiophila infection. The present invention addresses these needs.